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Home » Blogging » Easy Tip for Scheduling Instagram Posts

Easy Tip for Scheduling Instagram Posts

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A so-easy-it’s-crazy way to schedule Instagram posts right in the Instagram app! Works for iPhone and Android. Photo tutorial included.Genius Tip For Instagram - how to schedule posts in advance. Why didn't I think of this!?
Confession alert – Instagram is one of my favorite hobbies. Yes, you read that correctly. I love taking photos to share, editing them and looking at my grid obsessively to make sure everything fits together just so.

It takes more time than I care to admit.

It’s also hard to make sure I post at the best times for follower engagement if I’m busy doing something else. To avoid this, I pre-schedule my Instagram photos. I like to prep all of my photos and captions ahead of time so that when I’m ready, my posts are also ready to go. That makes it easier to post at the best times, even if I am busy doing something else.

All you need to know is summed up in two words – airplane mode. This tip works for both iPhone and Android phones.

The secret to Instagram scheduling is as simple as using airplane mode! Right before posting, turn your phone to airplane mode and you’ll get an “upload failed” message when you hit the check button to post your photo. Don’t be fooled though – your photo is still there! Instagram will save your edited photo with caption and location info. Then, when you are ready to post, just hit the refresh button and your post will magically appear! That’s it! Instagram scheduling made easy. The photos should still be there even if you restart your phone or download an app update. If you logout of the app though, they will probably disappear.

Here’s a step by step tutorial with screenshots:

  1. Edit your photo as you normally would.
Using airplane mode to post to Instagram in Advance

2. Type in your caption, tag people and add location information as your normally would.

Easy Instagram Tutorial - Posting in Advance

3. Before you hit the checkbox to submit your post, turn your phone on airplane mode. Below is how I do this on my Android phone. Here’s a tutorial on how to do this on an iPhone.

Instagram Best Practices - Tutorial on How to Schedule Instagram Posts

4. Now hit the checkmark to post your photo. You will get an ‘upload failed’ error. But fear not, your photo will now show at the top of your homepage feed with both a refresh and a delete option next to it.

Tips for managing Instagram - scheduling posts in advance

5. When you are ready to actually post your Instagram, just hit the ‘refresh’ button and your post will instantly load, with your edits, caption, tags and location information. That’s it!

Tips for Succeeding on Instagram and Gaining More Followers

Check out my Instagram home screen –

How to Use Instagram More Effectively - Scheduling posts

Can you believe how many posts I have edited and ready to go? Perfect for those days that I don’t have any new content to share!

Thanks so much for reading A Side of Sweet! For more Sweet in your life, you can find me on Instagram (obviously!), Snapchat (@asideofsweet), Pinterest, Facebook, Bloglovin’, or Twitter, or subscribe to receive a weekly email with new posts (see sidebar).

Tell me, do you have any tips for managing Instagram?

P.S. – Love this Instagram hack? Check out this post on Choosing the Best Hashtags for Instagram:

Tips for Choosing Instagram Hashtags for Engagement and Likes

My Goals for 2016
Recipe Update :: Kimchi Fried Rice

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September 21, 2015  •  Filed Under: Blogging 53 Comments

Comments

  1. Annie Montgomery says

    September 21, 2015 at 8:48 am

    this is genius, Kelly! and, really, I’d expect nothing less than a full backlog ready to go! 😉

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:26 pm

      Haha, right!? I had to share my crazy screen as part of it. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Alix says

    September 21, 2015 at 10:08 am

    Great tip! I had no idea you could save that many that way. I will definitely be trying this out this week.

    Alix

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:27 pm

      Nice! Hope it helps you streamline your workflow!

      Reply
  3. suki says

    September 21, 2015 at 1:49 pm

    Nice hack.

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:27 pm

      Thanks lady!

      Reply
  4. Tiffany Ingram says

    September 21, 2015 at 4:57 pm

    Definitely a useful tip! I could see myself scheduling these while on the bus and having them all prepared to post. Thanks lady!

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:28 pm

      Exactly! That’s how I do it too…..on the go when I can’t do anything else.

      Reply
  5. BakingGypsy says

    September 21, 2015 at 5:32 pm

    Wow this is awesome!!! 😀 😀 Thank you so much for sharing this awesome tip!

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:28 pm

      No problem! I hope it will help you as much as it helps me!

      Reply
  6. Sara says

    September 21, 2015 at 9:24 pm

    Great idea! Pinning to my blogger resources board!

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:29 pm

      Hooray! Thanks for sharing it Sara!

      Reply
  7. Johlene Orton says

    September 22, 2015 at 5:08 am

    Great idea! Sharing on Pinterest on my BLOGGING RESOURCES MADE EASY group board 🙂

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:29 pm

      Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing it Johlene!

      Reply
  8. nicole (thespicetrain.com) says

    September 22, 2015 at 7:34 am

    Absolutely BRILLIANT! Thank you, Kelly!!

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:30 pm

      Coming from you Nicole, that means quite a lot! Thanks for the comment!

      Reply
  9. Elaina Newton says

    September 22, 2015 at 3:00 pm

    Wow, this is truly the most clever social media tip I’ve read in awhile! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:30 pm

      Awesome! So glad to be of help Elaina!

      Reply
  10. Bam's Kitchen says

    September 22, 2015 at 5:25 pm

    Thanks so much for sharing Kelly! This is a brilliant time saver.

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:31 pm

      No problem! Hope it helps you to be a bit more streamlined!

      Reply
  11. Holly Waterfall says

    September 23, 2015 at 5:57 am

    This is genius! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:31 pm

      No problem! Happy to help Holly!

      Reply
  12. Melanie @ Gather for Bread says

    September 23, 2015 at 9:30 am

    Great tip! I’m going to try it out. 🙂

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:32 pm

      Awesome! Let me know if you have any questions!

      Reply
  13. Jessica at Team Wiking says

    September 23, 2015 at 8:05 pm

    Do you take it out of airplane mode after the first upload fails? I use latergramme for scheduling but it does have a limit.

    Reply
    • Kelly @A Side of Sweet says

      September 24, 2015 at 5:53 am

      I do. You can just use your phone normally until you want the pic to go up and then you hit refresh!

      Reply
  14. Lisa Thebearfootbaker says

    October 3, 2015 at 5:12 pm

    This is one of the most brilliant Instagram tips EVER! Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan says

      October 19, 2015 at 9:32 pm

      Wow! Thanks so much Lisa!

      Reply
  15. Nkenge says

    December 30, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    Hello Kelly!!

    I was honestly thinking of this idea earlier this week! Glad to see a post about it in detail! I just have one question. Being that hashtags are most affective at the time of your post, does it affect the time hashtags are posted along with your photo?

    This was my only concern, before I begin to get my posts ready!

    http://www.itsnkenge.com

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      December 30, 2015 at 7:24 pm

      No, it won’t affect the timing. They will show up like you just posted them!

      Reply
  16. Nan @ HungryEnoughToEatSix.com says

    February 27, 2016 at 4:16 am

    This is an excellent tip, thanks so much for sharing it! I found you via today’s Useletter from Amy Lynn Andrews.

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      February 27, 2016 at 7:48 am

      Yay! Glad you found it helpful Nan. Thanks so much for stopping by!

      Reply
  17. tisha @ quiltytherapy says

    March 2, 2016 at 8:46 am

    This is beyond helpful. I had wondered how people were “scheduling” instagram posts regularly.

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      March 2, 2016 at 9:23 am

      Great! Happy it was useful for you.

      Reply
  18. Liz Plummer says

    March 2, 2016 at 10:49 am

    Thanks for this, brilliant idea! It’s so difficult to space out the pics, especially when you’ve got several ready to go and lots of enthusiasm for editing photos but don’t want to spam people with too many all at once…

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      March 3, 2016 at 5:36 am

      Thanks Liz! This definitely makes it easier to have regular content, but not forget about all of those photos that you didn’t post right away!

      Reply
  19. Justin says

    March 4, 2016 at 9:56 am

    OMG SO CLEVER! I always have the same struggle. I’ve used Hootsuite to schedule my posts but it’s not that friendly. This seems easy and awesome 😛 Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Kelly - A Side of Sweet says

      March 4, 2016 at 11:05 am

      Hooray! So happy this is helpful for you.

      Reply
  20. clotilde says

    March 8, 2016 at 8:25 am

    Great tip, thank you for sharing! I was worried the “drafts” would be lost when the app was shut down and restarted, but it looks like it’s all there. Super!

    Found you through Amy Lynn Andrews’ newsletter. ^^

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      March 8, 2016 at 10:04 am

      Hi Clotilde – Thank you so much for stopping by! For me, the photos have lasted through app updates and phone restarts, which is so amazing! The only thing that will get you into trouble is logging off of Instagram and switching to another user, or switching phones.

      Reply
      • clotilde says

        March 8, 2016 at 1:11 pm

        That’s really good to know, Kelly, thanks. I’m doing an Instagram takeover on Friday — that’s why I’m looking into scheduling! — so I’ll need to use that trick only once I’m logged into that particular account.

        Reply
  21. Nancy | Plus Ate Six says

    March 19, 2016 at 9:35 pm

    I feel like an instagram dinosaur 🙁 I had no idea this sort of thing was actually possible. Wow! Brilliant hack 🙂

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      April 1, 2016 at 10:46 pm

      Haha, I’d never heard of it before I randomly figured it out!

      Reply
  22. Betsy @ Desserts Required says

    March 21, 2016 at 6:53 pm

    Seriously….BRILLIANT!!! Thanks so much for the tips!

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      April 1, 2016 at 10:45 pm

      Awesome, glad it helped!

      Reply
  23. Joy Love Bernstein says

    April 1, 2016 at 7:44 pm

    wow thank you….now this is the second trick I have learned about IG!!!
    WOW thank you this has helped…lol Let the standby begins..lol

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      April 1, 2016 at 10:45 pm

      Yay! So glad you found this helpful!

      Reply
  24. Melissa E Earle says

    April 4, 2016 at 8:09 am

    So let Mee see if I get this right. Your photo won’t post to Instagram when you turn your airplane mode off. You manually hit the refresh little half circle arrow to do it?
    I was thinking when I read the top half of this blog post, “yeah but what if I still want to do stuff on Mee phone, then I have to stay offline until I’m ready.” But in reading lower in the post, no that’s not the case, you just need to be in airplane mode for the second you initially post that photo. Correct?

    Such a cool tip! Thanks for sharing!!
    Cheerio, Mee

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      April 4, 2016 at 8:18 am

      Hi Mee – You just need to be in airplane mode for a few seconds! It will stay on the top of your Instagram feed until you are ready to share it unless you log out of the app. You can even restart your phone or update the app and it should still be there.

      Reply
  25. Julie Spear says

    May 2, 2016 at 3:23 pm

    Found you through “Ask Amy” newsletter – and YOU, my dear, are a GENIUS!!!!! I have been studying up on which separate app I would need to do this, if… NO, WHEN I finally get my blog up LIVE!!!! and now I don’t need one… therefore I LOVE you! Thank you so much for sharing!!! now I am off to read “How to share Instagram hashtags” because I don’t know how to do that either!!! and I TOO, freakin LOVE Instagram!!! and I won’t tell how many hours I spend looking at all the pretty pictures either, LOL!!!

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      May 3, 2016 at 11:31 am

      Awesome! So glad that this helped your workflow. Thanks for stopping by Julie!

      Reply
  26. Barely Vegan says

    May 6, 2016 at 5:21 pm

    I know this is an old post, but a while ago someone (maybe it was you!) mentioned this technique in a Facebook group I’m in and he/she shared this blog post in the group. I finally had the chance to try it today. This is AWESOME! I’m about to upload all of my instagram photos for the week now and release one each day. Thank you for sharing this secret. It will help me save SOOOOO much time. 🙂

    Reply
    • Kelly Egan - A Side of Sweet says

      May 7, 2016 at 10:16 am

      Oh yay! So glad this was helpful and thanks for your kind words!

      Reply

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Welcome!

San Francisco Food, Fashion, Travel Blogger

Hi! I’m Kelly. I live in San Francisco with my husband, Pat, and our puppy, Maddie. Here you’ll find recipes, DIYs, style, travel & a glimpse into our adventures. To learn a little more about me, Click Here.

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